mascara | Vanity Claire

ClaireSeptember 9, 2013

Barry M NEW Product Launches | A/W 2013

We’ll state the absolute bloody obvious first: we love Barry M. Doesn’t everyone? Is there honestly anybody in the country whose life is not instantly improved when they set eyes upon that glowing technicoloured makeup stand of dreams in Boots? Well, apart from obvious people like dads who only care about football and pork pies, of course.

Whenever Barry M launch new products I basically become borderline hysterical with excitement – I’m sure my colleagues would be well within their rights to slap me to get me to calm down, to be honest (though if any of them tried it then I would be forced to open a can of whoop ass). So when photos and info of the brand’s new Autumn/Winter products started to pop up on my feed, I immediately had to have a look. And guess what – I’m excited.

Flawless Matte Finish Foundation

First up is this new range of foundation. Historically, I’ve always stuck to Barry M’s ‘fun’ products – i.e. the nail varnishes, lipsticks, lip glosses and the much-revered Dazzle Dusts. I’ve never really tried out their more basic items, but it definitely seems to be a market they’re trying to elbow their way into. These matte finish foundations are VERY exciting to me; as a chronic sufferer of Shiny Nose Syndrome (or SNS as it shall henceforth be known) I’m always attracted to more matte formulas but have yet to find one that truly does the job. This oil-free base which also promises to be hydrating could just be my saviour. Also, see that? They’re not just blendable; they’re SUPER blendable. Super exciting.

Eye and Cheek Palettes
‘Natural Glow’

‘Smokin’ Hot’

‘Glamour Puss’

These eye and cheek palettes promise to be a big success, with six eyeshadows and a blush together in a handy mirrored compact with two applicators. It’s nice to see Barry M stepping away from their typical brights and actually offering some great neutral shades alongside the shimmering colours you’d expect. I’ve only very recently dipped my ~~massive~~ generously-sized toe into the waters of eyeshadow application, so I’m thinking a couple of these could be superb additions to my makeup bag.

Lash Vegas Waterproof Mascara

I haven’t tried the original Lash Vegas mascara, but now there’s a waterproof version for all the weep-prone ladies out there. The spiral-shaped brush aims to catch all the little lashes and add definition and volume. I’m tempted to buy this and only ever wear it on Saturday nights – I have a strange tendency to cry at X Factor when ugly people get standing ovations (no, I don’t know why) so this could stop me from looking panda-eyed as well as completely ridiculous.

Matte Nail Paints

For me, these are definitely the most exciting of the new products. I haven’t tried any matte nail varnishes yet, as most of the high street offerings seem to have received pretty poor reviews. Whenever Barry M hop on a new nail bandwagon though, they tend to do it brilliantly so hopefully these will live up to the hype. I think matte black in particularly looks amazing on nails, so I’ll be very keen to give these a try.

Royal Glitter Collection Nail Paints

Barry M’s glitter varnishes are up there as one of my favourite things in the world EVER, alongside puppies and Viennese Whirls. Some of the Textured Effect range has been hit and miss for me, but they’re always exciting to try and are guaranteed to give you an interesting look – and these glittery shades will be perfect as we get closer to Christmas party season.

Crystal Glaze Topcoat

A crystallised finish top coat? If there’s anything that can get your inner J-Lo excited, then surely it’s that combination of words. Ever a fan of a chavvy nail and polishes with ‘bits’ in, I’ll definitely be giving this a go.

All of these products are due to launch on 25th of September in Superdrug, and the 2nd of October in Boots – which, fact fans, is two days before my birthday, giving you two whole days to go and buy me many many matte polishes as gifts.

What do you all think of these new products? Are you excited to try any of them?

ClaireAugust 12, 2013

No. 7 Exceptional Definition Mascara: Review

Hey there pals and strangers! Continuing with my well-documented quest for the perfect mascara, today I come to you bearing my review of No. 7 Exceptional Definition. If you read my Benefit ‘They’re Real’ review then you will know that this was one very difficult mascara to follow. I loved it with the passion of a thousand amorous lovers (ooh I don’t think I’ve managed to make a post creepy this early on before, 5 points to Gryffindor), but decided to see what else the mascara market had to offer. Also I will say on a side note that They’re Real began to dry up around the 6 week mark, which is worth bearing in mind if you’re not willing to spend almost £20 that regularly.

I asked the lovely Twitter world for recommendations for a mascara to try next and had YSL’s ‘Baby Doll’ suggested to me, which sounded amazing. Unfortunately, this month I had a few horrible things I needed to pay out for, such as car tax (when I tell you that I still haven’t passed my test and so fork out for a car I can’t even legally drive, you’ll be able to imagine how much this pained me), and so I decided to be sensible and seek out a more purse-friendly high street option. One that stuck out to me in a review was No. 7’s Exceptional Definition mascara, so I hot-footed it to Boots to pick this little baby up. You know how every time you go to Boots you get a No. 7 voucher? Yeah, well I think some random goat must be going in my purse and munching mine because I couldn’t find one anywhere, so had to pay the full amount of £11. Luckily the nice shiny packaging stopped me from being too angry and I went on my merry way.

The main thing that drew me to this mascara is the brush; I much prefer plastic brushes to synthetic as I find they’re better at separating my lashes. The brush is also a ‘triple effect’ one with three different types of bristles which serve different lengthening, volumising and separating purposes. So, onto the results:

I’m really impressed with this mascara. As you can hopefully see from the photos, it added some good length, colour and definition to my mousey little excuse for eyelashes. The application is a little messy due to the rather wet formula, though I also found that to happen with They’re Real and don’t mind it too much. Depending on your method of application, it can clump a little – for example, that little habit of turning the brush vertical to wiggle on your bottom lashes is an absolute no-no with this. Overall though, I would say the effect isn’t much different to They’re Real and so I’m very happy indeed. I’ve been using it for about two weeks now and so can safely say that its staying power is quite good – maybe not quite as long-lasting as Benefit, but on the plus side it is much, much easier to remove at the end of the day than that stubborn little thing.

Have any of you tried No. 7’s Exceptional Definition mascara? What did you think?

Don’t forget that you can follow us on Twitter @StylingoUK and on Bloglovin‘!

ClaireJuly 28, 2013

Rimmel Lash Accelerator Endless Mascara: Review

Hello fellow loons and happy Sunday to merry England,

I’m writing to you from the Scottish highlands today, because I have finally decided to leave the streets of Coventry (I have a house, I’m not a prostitute) and spend some time with my delightful family. Needless to say, I’m vaguely baffled by the sheer number of trees and would quite like someone to explain what these giant rocks sprouting from the ground are (…mountains, what?!).

Apart from investing in a kilt, eating haggis and stalking Nessie, it is raining so we are not doing any activities today. Big surprise, I know. Thankfully, we have wifi in our Swedish-style lodge (and a sauna, so you all know what I will be doing shortly after writing this post!), so I thought I’d spend my time off work by catching up on blogging. Claire and I have been busier than Obama this week at work (with quite a few moments we wanted to throw in the towel and become Britney’s backing dancers. Wait…we still want to do that). Claire has managed to be a good egg and blog but I have been very pathetic and rubbish, so I do apologise!

ANYWAY, I hear you thinking “I came here to read a mascara review, not hear an idiot’s witterings about Scotland” (rude..).

I picked up this mascara during the week because there was a jazzy 2 for £10 situation going on with some Rimmel products in Boots. My foundation was one of the products involved in the deal, so it was definitely rude not to get something else.

You may have read our e.l.f makeup haul quite a while ago, but I got an e.l.f 3 in 1 mascara amongst everything else I bought. We were quite excited because the brush was similarly shaped to Benefit’s ‘They’re Real’ mascara and we thought we had come across a dupe. We hadn’t. The mascara is fine, but I do have some issues with it. Firstly, it takes FOREVER to dry on your lashes. If you sneeze or make sudden movements, you may as well give up on going out anywhere because your face will be ruined. Another issue is that because it takes so long to dry, my bottom and top lashes stick together causing me to look like a god damn fool.

BECAUSE OF THESE AWFUL ISSUES…I decided enough was enough. I’ve given the e.l.f mascara a decent trial and I just don’t like it. So I figured a new one was in order and grabbed this bad boy when I was in Boots the other day.

So, what about Rimmel’s Lash Accelerator Endless Mascara?

I gather it is a fairly new product, Rimmel are certainly still splashing the word ‘new’ all over display stands. The name promises a lot – acceleration? ENDLESS ACCELERATION? This is too much. Is endless acceleration even possible? I think I need to consult my engineer father on this one. Rimmel say that this mascara defies the laws of lash length. Has anyone got a copy of these Lash Length Laws they want to share?

I’m not usually one to comment on the packaging so I will just say that it looks like a tube of mascara. Which is a plus. I’m glad it doesn’t look like a bowl of cereal.

The brush is quite good, I’m quite the fan. As you can see, it’s a plastic one (do fibre brushes even exist anymore?) and it is fairly small and thin. The smallness is which I enjoy, it means you can get into the corners properly and not worry as much about poking yourself in the eyeball and screaming “HELP! IN THE NAME OF THE GOOD GOD OF MASCARA, WHY?!”

The colour is extreme black, and while I would say it is definitely black, I am unsure how extreme it is. Will report back with more info if this changes or if my eyelashes suddenly become racist.

I’ve included a picture of my eyeballs with one featuring NO mascara and one featuring a couple of coats of the Lash Accelerator Endless mascara. I’m quite pleased and I think this may just be my new go to mascara.

And here is my face with no other eye makeup on EXCEPT the mascara – I’m definitely a pleased Larry.

What do you all think? Anyone else tried this jazzy little Rimmel mascara?

ClaireJune 9, 2013

My Wild Sunday Face of the Day

This week has been a bit manic for Claire and I. From an epic Ikea shop (is it appropriate to do an Ikea haul post??) to having lots of big jobs to do at work, I’ve not had a huge amount of time to do my face properly. Claire did an Everyday Makeup post (it’s really fascinating I’ve heard) a few weeks ago and that pretty much sums up my makeup during the week too. A quick bit of foundation, powder, blusher and mascara and I’m done. We get up at 6am during the week and leave the house at 7, so it doesn’t leave a huge amount of time to be faffing with foundation brushes, contouring and any sort of blending hoo-hah.

ANYWAY I DIGRESS. I woke up ridiculously early this morning (tried to get up at 4 and got a stern “If you get up now I will punch you in the tit” in return. Bit rude) so decided to get up at 7ish, fix up my face and spend AGES doing it. Yes. Hello stippling brush, it’s been a while. Missed you.

Most people who know me will agree that I’m a big fan of shoving a huge amount of makeup on my face. I don’t feel like this is a problem and I definitely don’t follow the general rule of “if you’ve got lots of eye makeup on, then go for a nude lip.” With this in mind, my Sunday face of the day might be a bit much for you lucky gals who can pop a bit of tinted moisturiser on and look all fresh faced and lovely (DARN YOU ALL TO HELL). But ya know, it’s Sunday and I have tomorrow off work, so I figured it was the best time to be a bit jazzy and have a great face.

The general process goes as follows:

Moisturise. I’m using a cheap moisturiser from Tesco’s new range of skincare. It’s not the best thing I’ve used and is a bit heavy for my oily/combination skin. I’ve nearly finished using it now so will be on the hunt for a better one soon. My standard used to be Olay and I do love their moisturisers, so there is a good chance I will just go back to that!

Stipple on my foundation. My favourite foundation for the past few years has been Rimmel’s 25 Hour Lasting Finish foundation. It’s a heavy coverage, oil based liquid foundation and not for everyone, but I love it. It goes on smoothly and has been one of the best heavy coverage liquid foundations I’ve used (I think it’s quite a good replacement for Mac’s Studio Sculpt). The shade I used is 303 in True Nude, which is quite orange but I’m also usually quite orange so it works.

Stippled on concealer. I use concealer under my eyes (where did these dark circles come from) and on whatever blemishes I have. I’m using a TERRIBLE stick concealer from Collection 2000 and I don’t recommend it at all, but it’s better than nothing. My usual fave is their Illuminating Touch liquid concealer, it’s amazing. I stipple using the Real Techniques stippling brush.

Puff on powder. I’ve used a big range of powders in my wise and fulfilled years of makeup wear and I will keep coming back to the £2.99 Collection compressed powder. It does what it says on the tin, smells nice and goes on really well. What more could you want really? I’m using it in the shade Tender Touch 02 at the moment.

Contour. For nights out, I’ll go the whole hog and contour everything on my face, although I tend to prefer doing this by using two different colours of foundation. I’ll then do a very light bit of shading on my nose, forehead, cheekbones and chin. For daywear, I just do a bit of shading on my cheekbones. I have a bit of a strange process, but I mix face powder with a dark brown eyeshadow – it’s the perfect colour for those of us who have orange faces (…when bronzer doesn’t show up, sob). I used a Look Statement Eyes shadow and my trusty Collection powder.

Blush. I tend to use whatever blusher I find knocking around in my makeup bag. I usually buy the exact same shades of warm pink so I’m pretty non-adventurous in this respect. Today I used a Seventeen blusher pot.

Eyebrows. Read my eyebrow post here, but I use the Sleek Brow Kit in dark.

Eyeshadow. I like neutral colours for eyeshadows so use a combination of tans and light browns with a highlighter on my browbone. I used a well-used and nearly finished Rimmel palette today.

Eyeliner. I use liquid and pencil. Pencil on my water line and then a winged liquid eyeliner on my lid.

Mascara. I’m not too fussy when it comes to mascara because my eyelashes are blonde. Anything that goes on black and makes me look less like a baldy is fine by me. Claire is more of the mascara expert, so read her post about her quest for the perfect mascara here! I used a Collection 2000 one in black/brown today!

Lips. I popped on one of my new MUA lipsticks, which I reviewed over here. I used the light pink shade in an attempt to look less like a prostitute.

And there you have it. My Sunday FOTD. Now I just need something to do today and ignore the fact it’s 9am and I have a full face of makeup. Hmm.

P.s. You might have seen on Twitter that me and Claire are in the process of kitting out our front room as a work space/blogging area (which is marginally better than the Gym Disco room we had initially planned..). This is our new desk area, which I LOVE. What do you all think??

ClaireMay 21, 2013

Benefit ‘They’re Real’ Mascara: Review

If, as they say, the eyes are the windows to the soul, then there’s no point having a pair of god-awful curtains up. It is for this very philosophical reason that I have been on a quest for the perfect mascara for many years now. View Full Post